01. It’s A Swindle
02. Sex Appeal
03. Peter, Peter
04. The Smart Set
05. When The Special Girlfriend
06. I Am A Wamp!
07. L’heure Bleue
08. Take It Off Petronella!
09. Chuck Out The Men
10. The Washed-up Lover
11. O Just Suppose
12. I Don’t Know Who IBelong To
13. The Lavender Song
14. Maskulinum – Femininum
15. A Little Attila
16. A Little Yearning
17. Oh, How We Wish That We Were Kids Again
18. Munchhausen

Ute Lemper, vocals
Matrix Ensemble
Jeff Cohen, piano
Robert Ziegler, arranger

"Entartete Musik," of which 18 examples in English adaptation are provided here, includes, in the definition of producer Michael Haas, among other things, "important works lost, destroyed or banned by the political disruptions of the twentieth century," in particular, the Third Reich of Nazi Germany. Specifically, these are cabaret songs of the years of the Weimar Republic (1918-1933), written by such composers as Friedrich Hollaender (who became Frederick Hollander when he followed Marlene Dietrich to Hollywood) and Mischa Spoliansky. They reflect the decadence and unfulfilled hopes of a temporary oasis in German history marked by runaway inflation and agitations of the Left and Right, matters treated in the lyrics. The album contains material that provides the perhaps unrealized source of later re-creations like the score for the Broadway musical Cabaret. Ute Lemper (who has performed extensively in that show) gives bravura readings of songs that treat corruption, homosexuality, and a doomed social idealism with music, provided by the Matrix Ensemble, that recalls Kurt Weill and hot jazz. The looming Nazi era is inescapable in such Hollaender songs as "Oh, How We Wish That We Were Kids Again" and especially "Münchhausen." The latter bears some similarity to the folk song "Last Night I Had the Strangest Dream," except that we know what happened in Germany instead of the dream of peace and social justice Hollaender proposes. More than a mere history lesson, Berlin Cabaret Songs reawakens a lost era that engages issues of tolerance, sexual confusion, and political uncertainty that continue to affect listeners. It also contains some extremely funny numbers. Jeremy Lawrence's English lyrics, based on translations by Alan Lareau, Kathleen L. Komar, and Haas, are amazingly deft, retaining the German flavor but singing well in their adoptive language. --- William Ruhlmann, Rovi

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01.La Mémoire et La Mer
02.Du Sang Et Des Plumes
03.Je Ne Sais Pas
04.Amis D’Un Soir
05.The Greatest Ride
06.Luna
07.Ghosts of Berlin
08.Wings of Desire
09.Nomad
10.Here Is Love
11.Nevada
12. September Mourn
13.Blood and Feathers
14.Stranger Friend

Ute Lemper (vocals)
Mark Lambert (guitar, background vocals)
Wolfram Koessel (cello, strings)
William Gallison (harmonica)
Hector del Curto (bandoneon)
Nils Wuelker (trumpet)
Werner "Vana" Gierig (piano, keyboards)
Matthew Parrish (acoustic bass)
Todd Turkisher (drums, percussion, drum programming)
Mauro Refosco (percussion)
Catherine Russell (background vocals)

This journey 'between yesterday and tomorrow' through time and places in the world is also a journey through my heart. It is a collection of memories, impressions, moments of joy, but also vulnerable moments of doubt and outrage. It moves between clearness and painful confusion, hope and despair about world issues but always wants to stay poetic in its thought and language.

Why I am telling these stories... and not others... I could have told a hundred different stories, yet at the moment in time, it was an impulsive, intuitive decision to focus on this selection of stories. The songs felt like a medication, which searches and finds various inflammation in the body of the world and in the body of life, trying to treat them poetically and positively.

But the wheel of our histories keeps spinning and some events make us stronger, some make us weaker on our journeys between yesterday and tomorrow

The booklet cover art is a cryptic picture, a collage of parts of the East Side Gallery (on the Berlin Wall), some faces are taken out of my paintings, ('War' and 'Rue Pigalle') and the actual face is a brushworked photograph. It shows a journey between yesterday and tomorrow. It is meant to trigger your thoughts... please and displease, and not be an obvious and glamorous cover.

Hope you enjoy the ride! ---Ute, telemper.com

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01. Losing My Mind (04:59)
02. Barbara (05:38)
03. Allein in einer groГџen Stadt (05:25)
04. J'attends le doux veuvage (05:45)
05. The Ladies Who Lunch (06:01)
06. Immense and Red (10:58)
07. Lili Marleen - Death Is a Master From Germany (04:56)
08. Being Alive (04:52)
09. DГ©jeuner du matin (04:02)
10. Die Kleptomanin (02:41)
11. Embrasse-moi (04:11)
12. Der Graben (06:03)
13. Immense et rouge (08:26)

Ute Lemper – vocals
Jean-Marc Apap - Viola
Jean-Philippe Audin - Cello
Jean-Paul Batailley - Percussion
Remi Brey - Viola
Thierry Caens - Trumpet
Hervé Cavelier - Violin, Violin (Electric)
Marc Chantereau - Percussion
Vincent Charbonnier - Double Bass
Michèle Deschamp - Violin
Bruno Fontaine - Arranger, Concept, Conductor, Keyboards, Piano, Producer
Christophe Guiot - Violin
Laurent Lefèvre - Bassoon
Pierre Lenert - Viola
Véronique Marcel - Violin
Juan José Mosalini  - Bandoneon
Elisabeth Pallas - Violin
Alain Randon - Bassoon
Roland Romanelli - Accordion
Yves Sanna - Drums
Jannick Top - Guitar (Bass)
Dominique Vidal  - Clarinet

Although Ute Lemper is best known to her devoted cult following as one of the great cabaret singers of all time, the German-born singer began as a stage actress, and has continued this career in tandem with her cabaret work. 1995's CITY OF STRANGERS combines the two sides of Lemper's musical persona, putting songs by the idiosyncratically brilliant Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim next to chansons by the equally unique French composer Jacques Prevert.

As with all fine settings like this, the combination reveals more what the two composers have in common than how they differ. There are tracks by other composers on CITY OF STRANGERS, but Sondheim and Prevert's presence is felt even in songs they didn't compose. The arrangements, alternating between full orchestration and simple bandoneon and vocal, suit the songs beautifully, and Lemper sings with characteristic passion and grace. ---Rovi

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1. Little Water Song [04:00]
2. The Case Continues [03:52]
3. Pasionate Fight [04:13]
4. Tango Ballad [04:59]
5. Couldn't You Keep That To Yourself [02:50]
6. Streets Of Berlin [04:03]
7. The Part You Throw Away [04:40]
8. Split [03:43]
9. Punishing Kiss [04:32]
10. Purple Avenue [04:23]
11. You Were Meant For Me [05:17]
12. Scope J [10:51]

Ute Lemper - Vocals
Miggy Barradas - Arranger, Drums
Stuart "Pinkie" Bates - Accordion, Arranger, Organ (Hammond)
John Beal - Bass
Jay Berliner - Guitar
John Bradbury 	Orchestra
Hugh Burns - Guitar
Rob Ellis -Sampling
Warren Ellis - Violin
Rob Farrer - Percussion
Brian Gascoigne - Conductor, Orchestration, Piano
John Giblin - Bass, Guitar
Neil Hannon - Vocals
Jill Jaffe - Violin
Evan Lurie - Arranger, Piano
Alasdair Malloy - Percussion
Bryan Mills - Arranger, Bass (Electric), Bass (Upright)
Everton Nelson - Violin
Alfredo Pedernera - Bandoneon
Jay Reynolds - Mixing, Programming
Ivor Talbot - Arranger, Guitar, Mandolin
Joby Talbot - Arranger, Conductor, Cor Anglais, Keyboards, Piano, Programming
Hal Willner - Producer
Gavyn Wright - Orchestra Leader

Ute Lemper has developed a reputation as a successor to Lotte Lenya with the looks of Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich, a northern European chanteuse with a taste for the decadent sound of Weimar Germany; she is arguably the definitive interpreter of Kurt Weill for her generation. Punishing Kiss, her first album devoted primarily to songs by contemporary songwriters, extends her reputation by incorporating the work of artists influenced by Weill. Many listeners not previously familiar with her will be drawn in by the presence of previously unrecorded songs by Elvis Costello (who contributed three selections), Tom Waits (two), and Nick Cave (one). But the primary collaborators on the album are the members of the British group the Divine Comedy, who provide the backing tracks on most of the songs, and three compositions by group members Neil Hannon and Joby Talbot, with Hannon singing duet vocals on three tracks. The sound of Weill -- the early Weill -- pervades the album, starting with the inclusion of his "Tango Ballad" (aka "Zuhälter-Ballade" or "Ballad of Immoral Earnings"), written with Bertolt Brecht, from The Threepenny Opera, a song in which a couple reminisce about the good old days when he was a procurer and she a prostitute. Such a decadent tone continues in Cave and Bruno Pisek's "Little Water Song," sung by a woman who is being drowned by her lover, and Philip Glass and Martin Sherman's "Streets of Berlin," originally written for the film Bent; in Costello's complex tales of romantic dissolution with titles like "Passionate Fight" and "Punishing Kiss" (reminiscent of his work on the Burt Bacharach album Painted from Memory); and in the characteristic Waits songs of romantic low-life types. Among the most impressive selections, however, are the Divine Comedy tracks "The Case Continues," a song about a romantic breakup written as if describing a murder mystery, and "Split," which finds Lemper and Hannon hurling witty insults at each other. From its extensive set of photographs of Lemper in black leather posing in a decaying building to the dramatic arrangements and the singer's powerful, precise vocals, this is highly stylized art music given a pop element by its composers. A daring effort, it deserves more of an audience than it is likely to get, at least at first. (The European edition of the album has a different sequencing and features a different cover. For the Quebecois and French markets, Lemper recorded French versions of "The Case Continues" and "Little Water Song." The Japanese version used the European sequencing and added a bonus track, "Lullaby.") ---William Ruhlmann, Rovi

Ute Lemper’s is, sometimes, not an easy talent to love. Ever intense, she makes considerable demands on both herself and her audience and her performances often seem short on humour. Punishing Kiss takes the singer away from her accustomed recorded milieu of Weill and Berlin cabaret songs into new territory; most of the numbers are by contemporary writers like Tom Waits, Evil Costello and Nick Cave.

The results are mixed. Cave’s "Little Water Song" is an extraordinary narrative of a woman being drowned by her lover. Lemper’s passionate take on the lyric holds the listener spellbound until the final chilling line: "I glow with the greatness of my hate for you." She also does well with the contributions of The Divine Comedy’s Neil Hannon and Joby Talbot. A trio of songs include "The Case Continues," a woman’s complaint at being dumped by her lover over the phone. Joby Talbot’s swirling string arrangement is thrilling although Lemper’s unremittingly serious approach lets her down somewhat when she fails to make the most of rueful lines like "If sex were an Olympic sport we’d have won the gold."

Hannon joins her on the excellent "Split" as a man driven to maudlin self pity by the lover who has betrayed him. They also duet effectively on a resolutely updated version of Weill’s "Tango Ballad." Ironically, Lemper is more effective here than on some of her "authentic" Weill recordings. She exhibits a nice sense of irony on this sordid but strangely romantic tale of a whore and her pimp remembering their association with a degree of affection which seems to surprise even themselves.

While Lemper lightens up a little for Elvis Costello’s "Passionate Fight," a surprisingly pretty pop tune which might or might not be about an S&M relationship, she remains resolutely dour on the same writer’s "Punishing Kiss." Consequently she misses the humour – and with it the pathos – of a woman who spends her empty days watching soap operas. She also fails to add much to a pair of Tom Waits numbers and the final track – Scott Walker’s "Scope J" – begins promisingly but soon becomes almost unlistenable as it succumbs to both the writer’s and the performer’s worst excesses.

Punishing Kiss will undoubtedly appeal to Lemper’s established fans and it may even attract a few put off by her misguided assaults on Sondheim and the repertoires of Dietrich and Piaf. The bulk of the songs are excellent, with strong melodies and intriguing lyrics which reward repeated listening. Lemper uses her dark, brooding voice to great effect throughout but one still cannot help wishing she would take herself a little less seriously and enjoy her talent a little more. She seems unable to resist letting her audience know how demanding performing is. Her unwillingness to shield us from her efforts is ultimately slightly alienating and detracts from her undoubted skill and commitment to some fascinating material. --- Mark Jennett, culturevulture.net

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Der Silbersee
01. Fennimores Lied
02. Casars Tod
Die Dreigroschenoper
03. Die Moritat Von Mackie Messer
04. Salomon-Song
05. Die Ballade Von Der Sexuellen Horigkeit
Berliner Requiem
06. Zu Potsdam Unter Den Eichen
07. Nannas Lied
Der Silbersee
08. Lied Das Lotterieagenten
Aufstieg Und Fall Der Stadt Mahagonny
09. Alabama-Song
10. Denn Wie Man Sich Bettet
11. Je Ne T'Aime Pas
One Touch Of Venus
12. I'm A Stranger Here Myself
13. Westwind
14. Speak Low

Ute Lemper – Soprano (Vocals)
Wolfgang Sebastian Meyer  - Harmonium
Kai Rautenberg 	- Piano
RIAS Berlin Kammerensemble
John Mauceri - Conductor

I had heard a track or two of Ute Lemper's versions of Brecht/Weill on classical radio and had my doubts about her interpretations. I guess that's because Lotte Lenya's versions were just so deeply ingrained in the old brain. But a more careful listen to the entire CD won me over. Completely.

There does seem to be a current bias toward a declamatory approach to singing Weill. Theater historians maintain that it wasn't always so. Even Lenya's classic Columbia sides, it should be remembered, were recorded relatively late in her career when her voice was a lot roughter and smokier than it had been in her youth.

I don't imagine that Lemper was trying for the definitive interpretation, but what she does achieve is remarkable. I found I was hearing these songs in a new way--maybe it was actually the original way (if the historians are correct)--whatever the case I am grateful for the experience.

The French and English language tracks are fine too. Ute may be overdoing the Noo Yawk brassiness she attempts on "Stranger Here Myself"--but only by just a hair. Not really worth quibbling about. Ute Lemper is a major talent. Anyone at all interested in Kurt Weill's legacy would be well advised to check this recording out. --- Gregor von Kallahann, amazon.com

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